BY their standards, Liverpool were dreadful. Against the expectations, Everton were quite good.
And yet Everton never deserved a result from the game and Liverpool never quite deserved to be punished.
This is what it is to be better.
It must be heartbreaking for Blues. Really the best story of the match is theirs. That they came to Anfield and had a sensible go. That they were hard done to by the penalty. That they were so fired up Wayne Rooney needed the big hook. That they got the equaliser at their lowest ebb in the game and that they concede because Oumar Niasse gets off and their expensive goalkeeper only has little arms and is left flailing.
That Liverpool’s record signing nods the ball home underlines their story on the day they can’t make their big centre forward fireworks signing until they sell their homegrown hero Ross Barkley. The Mersey Millionaires left on their knees when it should have been so different. It was meant to be so different.
This was the season Everton should supposedly have kicked on. But mismanagement and resources that remain genuinely questionable across the club have left their season marooned by January. There is nothing left for them to play for, not a thing; a long five months awaits them watching Sam Allardyce mime his way through a campaign in the hope of a second season that should never come.
Liverpool limp on. And they did limp. And they were limp. This could well be our poorest home performance of the season, only West Brom threatens it. And yet they found a way. It’s our third consecutive 2-1 win and all three of them now have a different flavour. This is the undeserved type but that doesn’t make it any less sweet. Every Liverpool player grafted and fair play to them for that. It’s the least you can expect but some nights the most you can demand.
I enjoyed the narks: Andy Robertson, Roberto Firmino and James Milner. None played what you could call well. But all understood what it is to face Everton and what it is to undermine them and face them and battle them. Because fair play to them. Unlike a few weeks back they needed to be faced down and battled. They needed to be fronted. They were a proper Everton, not a shadow of themselves. They look a top-half side but a top-half side with a gulf between them and the top six.
The best proper performance on the whole pitch was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He’s showing genuine quality every time he gets on the ball yet Liverpool did look an attacking player short. Adam Lallana pulled his League One performance out for better or worse but Liverpool looked blunt. Not lacking intent but lacking guile.
The winner belongs to Virgil van Dijk as the evening therefore has to. What a way to make a debut, an introduction. He wants to be a Liverpool centre back in tooth, nail and stride but he emerged victorious tonight due to a match-winning contribution. He rises to clinch the fact that Liverpool progress and Everton don’t; the story of a season in one header and he wheels away announced as a Liverpool player.
This is what it is to be better, what it is to be us. These are our days of leisure. Do we deserve them? Not tonight. Not off the back of that. But let’s take them. Let’s live them. They belong to us.
A few weeks back off a pathetic draw, Phil Neville, the man who perhaps best personifies Everton’s terrible 15 years, said that Liverpool was blue. One draw, one weak as piss draw, and that was the language.
So God has given us, given this thing of ours these days of leisure. Liverpool is red this Friday night. Let’s go to town. We don’t deserve it; it makes every drink taste all the better.
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I thought Robertson was very good. Van Dijk majestic. Calm. Dominant. Talked. Pointed. Showed leadership on day one.
Great write up, Niel. Spot on … except for Robertson. He was excellent tonight. 9 out of 10 for me. One of the best left-back performances in a red shirt I can recall for a very long time.
You didn’t think Andy Robertson played well?
Strange.
Agree with the above comment, he was man of the match in my eyes, great game
Robertson and Virgil were the best players on the night for me. Thought Ox got poorer as the game went on.
The only measure by which Liverpool didn’t play well enough to deserve to win was by the high standards we’ve set this season. To any neutral surely we created enough chances to win the game
Absolutely. Liverpool may have been average by the standards they’ve set for themselves the last couple of years, and Everton played reasonably well, but without creating chances; and yet there was only one team deserving to win this game. Liverpool were still vastly superior.
Think we were watching different games, Andy R best player on the pitch by a country mile, Ox v.poor apart from set piece delivery.
Other than Virgil, I thought Robertson was the best player on the pitch. Good tackling and a threat going forward.
Virgil though. Before the game I was in that meek group of supporters, thinking we should keep him on the bench, just ease him in. Scared and scarred by our recent history of center backs, I was worried we’d threaten to break him too early.
Virgil didn’t give a shit though. He’s built for this sort of game, swaggering around the pitch like it’s his. It was.
Put your fears to bed, Virgil is here.
What a night, what a goal.
I’m having this Neil, bravo mate. Bottle of red polished off and pissing myself at that Neville quote, the scruffy meff. Fair play to the shite tonight though our midfield was hugely light and gave them that chance. Cannot countenance Coutinho going unless we get a replacement in first on that showing. Sorry Phil, you’ll have to do your time if you want to do the crime
For once, I’m not in agreement here Neil, Everton wanted to kick us off the park, so much so they had to remove Rooney
We rode the tackles, shook off the fouls and endured the pulling and 2-handed pushing
You can’t pull a player away with your arm around him in the area, that’s not ‘a contact sport’ thing
That was a stonewall penalty
Everton are the most disgraceful team in the division, thank God no one was injured again
Thought VVD made a couple of errors but overall looked sound. The most encouraging part was seeing him shout at Karius for being shit. About time someone did and it bolds well for the future to have a voice in defence for the first time since Carra.
Robertson motm for me. What has he to do to play well Neil? Oxlade Chamberlain tries so hard but he just lacks that touch, the pass to make him a Liverpool player yet, giving everything though.
Missing the point…we didn’t play that well…Robertson gets mentioned for being a nark not for being shit.
No I was responding the Neil’s view that of the narks,” None played what you could call well.”
“yet Liverpool did look an attacking player short” not much more you can say. Could have done with a few of his through balls tonight and no doubt many more to come.
I agree with most of the coments here though, Robertson was excellent tonight and a good save away from an awesome goal.
Virgil is so calm on the ball. If he was flustered he hid it extremely well. I was sure he was getting a goal every time he went up.
Ox, he tried hard and almost there but final ball needs a bit of work.
Thought Mane was decent, given his travels.
Poor old Bobby, his mates off and all he wanted to do was knock that fucker out. Hope he didnt say somethimg stupid.
Message to Jurgen Klopp . Mignolet has his faults but Karius is worse than useless and it will come back and bite you if you continue to pick him.!!
Robertson was MOTM.
You need to watch it again….
……or stop the booze.
Ok. Let’s get it straight right now Neil, Robertson is good. Young, raw. But good. And he can get better. It is ok for you to believe. He is good and more reliable than Moreno at this stage. Tonight he showed what he can bring to this (lovely) red table. He is trying so hard to be accepted. Tonight was his best game. And the shot when he got in behind and let rip rather than deferring to the more established players was better than many we have seen coming from that position. I am glad he is growing in confidence … however I am Scottish so must recuse myself. In my defence though, history does show that LFC need at least one Scot, somewhere in the club, to win anything. Discuss. ;)
As for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain tonight was not a good night for him. Good on the dead-balls but as has been said he is a confidence player. He has played better. … as has Lallana. Gomez had a better game.
However .. we won the game. Big V scored the winner. But he looked to be talking and organizing those around him. At last. Future Kapitan. More “heft” than Henderson?
We won … “ugly”. Everton’s goal is what we are meant to be doing. We were Liverpooled!
Also, this was a game which illustrated what “wee Phil” brings to the pitch. This was a game where we missed the sheer brilliance and joy that he has, the difference he can make. He does not always do it but when he does … He will be missed, until we scout “the next one”.
Enjoy your ale, City await.
And let’s hope Robertson eats his porridge in the meantime! Sterling and Walker await.
Haha. “Recuse myself”
You can work for Trump administration now.
Yes. Yes I can. ;)
I thought Robertson played really well. He’s becoming more and more solid every game. Ox was great too. Can is slower than the guys from last I’d the summer wine. I can’t wait to see 25 year old Joe Gomez, what a beast.
I agree with the rest: Andy Robertson was a monster tonight.
This was our worst performance for weeks
And yet we win
We should have smashed them in the league recently but got done for a draw. Tonight we weren’t that good but our recently found resilience shone through. I’m happy with that win and firmly believe we’re actually a real deal now. Only 2 defeats since August and proper men wanting to play for us – surely bodes well ! In a week when a Brazilian tried to derail our great form of late we have – progressed, dug deep, and had a big brill centre half boss the show and score the winner. If I was a player (football) I’d want to be here for the now ant the future !
Round 4 – bring whoever !!
Robertson was immense, 100x better than that other fella. Virgil dominant, great passing, calm – future captain (from August hopefully). Performance was nowhere near as bad as WBA where we couldn’t pass to each other more than two or three times in a row. Sore throat this morning, don’t think I’ve sworn as much at a match as last night – at Allardyce, Rooney, Calvert Lewin & McCarthy mainly. Horrible mob.
Robertson played very well. A centre-half that talks, points and shepherd’s the team, Captain by the end of the season. Shearer chatting shite apparently if you’re Lovren you cannot place your arm on an attacker in the penalty area. However, that’s now changed to be it being a contact sport.Absolute wanker… so long Blue Shite….
I enjoyed the game, though I thought we played okay. Wasn’t much of a Derby for me until Firmino got pushed into the stands. Imagine Gerrard or Souness being pushed like that into the stands. :)
Great to see Virgil come in with a goal that he got right from the first attempt when he missed the opportunity to score earlier. It’s early days so Matip isn’t adjusted just yet to the big guy within their defensive setup.
Robertson had a good game as well, better than Mane or some of the others who huffed and puffed. Robertson isn’t Roberto Carlos by any means, but I like his energy, determination and, speed to keep up. He also doesn’t have that wrong “X” factor that Moreno has, where Moreno often goes Ex-Machina on the team at times. Anyways so far I like his contributions.
Mane on the other hand seems just off, and predictable at times, but it might just be that time of the season I think.
As for Karius, I can’t recall if this was his first derby match or not. He seemed to do okay but I was a bit concerned as to why he hesitated to come off his line a couple of times to clear the ball.
Was it confusion or was it not understanding the calls by his defenders to do so. In any case he has a lot of work to do to be able to remain solid between the sticks, and hopefully with VVD’s leadership will gain the confidence to do so, otherwise Klopp needs to buy an established keeper and move on.
Great job by Jurgen to with rotating players, dealing with the Coutinho bullshit and handling the ebbs and flows of the players forms and injuries. Still a lot of work and improvement from him to get done, but he seems to be on top of it.
Big game coming up against City. I think we have enough to bring them down to earth even without Coutinho. Just hope the belief is there with the team in themselves and Klopp to get the job done.
Up the Derby-Winning-Reds!!!
You on the sauce with Gibbo?
Robertson was mom, of was pants. What game did you lot watch?